---
title: Great ones, first, of course," said he, "and then the little ones; b… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Great ones, first, of course," said he, "and then the little ones; but size is not always a proof of greatness." Who acts: Great ones, size. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels, sentence 7

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Great ones, first, of course," said he, "and then the little ones; but size is not always a proof of greatness."

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**Who acts:** Great ones, size · **What happens:** say, not be · **To what, where:** proof · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Beetle Who Went on His Travels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Great ones, size), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:8:7
# text = Great ones, first, of course," said he, "and then the little ones; but size is not always a proof of greatness."
1	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
24	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	26	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	proof	proof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	parataxis	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	greatness	greatness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Great ones of course |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | present | size | a proof |  |  |  | of greatness; always *property* | tree rules |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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